Law of Love

The Body of Christ has rightly understood that Christ defeated sin and has ultimately won the victory of salvation from sin for humanity.  Yet in seeing Christ already ultimately victorious, as fulfilling the Law, and "that works of the Law cannot justify anyone before God" (Hans Denck, "Concerning True Love,' 114-5), many of the "body parts" have lost the connection between the perfect love and mercy and grace given to them through Christ and the holiness that should of necessity spring from it.

In a recent post on AtheismForLent.net, a contributor says:  "What if the resurrection was up to us?  How differently and passionately would we live if it was upon our shoulders to bring a resurrected Jesus to the lost, and without us God was dead?  Because I would argue [that] without a church willing to live as though this is true, we'll continue to live in a world that views God as nothing more than an antique."

That post is following the topic of Nietzsche's often-misunderstood "God is dead" quote, and I am not wishing to engage that nor to imply that I think we have anything to do with Christ's own resurrection.  However, I do resonate with this poster's statement that it is "upon our shoulders to bring a resurrected Jesus to the lost," to be "a church willing to live as though this is true."

Because of the social orders, the actions and the ways of living that the Church has professed and carried out in the past two millennia, God truly does look dead to many of the world—or at least an antique with no real impact in our present world but sentimental value.

Into this space Hans Denck describes our salvation as one that should make God very much alive to the world.  He contends that "only to the extent that one beholds [or holds in front of them, in their vision] the perfection of the Spirit is one saved" (114).  He explains that Moses, acting righteously on behalf of justice, killed an Egyptian to protect an Israelite brother—but perfect love would have moved him to die for that brother instead (114).

"We can see then why it is written that works of the Law cannot justify anyone before God.  The justification by faith which is worthy before God far surpasses the works of the Law.  For perfection forsakes the concessions contained in the Law...  Now one might object that nothing can be added to or taken away from the Law... Yet to this one must reply that love is the very essence of the Law, which nobody can practice too perfectly or understand too profoundly" (114-5).

If "love is the very essence of the Law," echoing Jesus' own words in Matthew 22, then Denck's conclusion absorbs the tension often felt in Matthew 5.17-8: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.  For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one iota, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished."

The law is fulfilled in Christ's perfection.  Yet, Christ's perfection does not abolish the law:  Perfection actually extends the law—as the rest of Matt. 5 shows Jesus extended common teachings, even some directly quoting the Torah ("You have heard it said... but I tell you...").  Gerhard Lohfink, in Jesus and Community, explains how this move by Jesus "makes clear that in Matt. 7.24-7 the teaching of Jesus takes the place of the Torah. Now the Torah was Israel's order of life, its social order... For the people of God to exist as a community, its social order has to be put into practice" (Kindle location 725).

Anyone who claims to follow Christ does not merely follow cognitive propositions about our present state or eternal destination(s):  Instead, we must continuously be the Body of Christ by holding Christ—his teachings and perfection—ever before us, so that love might rule us as law.

Bartolomé de las Casas concludes that "what Christ does teaches us, because the Father gave Him to us as a witness, a leader, a teacher... That means obey Him, imitate Him. He teaches not just by words but by deeds as well what one must do to imitate Him" (The Only Way, 80).  This same Jesus also speaks of the fundamental nature of the works he does.  In his own words, "If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me.  But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father" (John 10.37-8); therefore, our life (and particularly our evangelizing) should be founded on living out the love which naturally perfects us first, then allow our words to rest upon that tangible reflection of Christ.

If the church, both institutionalized and not, should come to live this out, then even the world that doesn't know Christ would be hard pressed to deny the existence of Christ's perfect love.